Typically, a seal assembly used in a static application or a dynamic application, such as with a rotary or a reciprocating shaft within a housing, is engaged to a seal cavity of the housing by various engagement methods, such as press-fitting, snap-fitting, threading, etc. An complication may arise when such a seal assembly is fitted in the seal cavity and the assembly has components with material properties required to operate within the intended conditions that may otherwise be stiff, rigid, and/or hard. For example, a cantilever feature press-fit may, in some cases, be too rigid and require a high installation force. The components of the seal assembly may comprise a sealing component, a backup ring, and a locking ring and wherein the sealing component is typically made of a fluoropolymer-based material, such as PTFE or PTFE base material, while the backup ring and the locking ring may be made of materials that are greater in hardness than that of the sealing component, such as metals or hard engineered plastics.
A high installation force is typically necessary to install a seal assembly in a seal cavity of the housing when said assembly has components, such as a backup ring and a locking ring, that are made of relatively hard or stiff materials. Also due to the high installation force, the seal assembly may not be centered correctly within the spring cavity of the housing, and thus such misalignment may lead to uneven wear of the sealing components, failure in retaining the seal assembly within the housing, and premature failure, most notably when the seal assembly is used for dynamic applications.